Ted Haggard needs to get a real job!!

Have some extra cash? Feel like going to heaven? Then you might consider sending Ted Haggard (remember him - he who sinned with another man, but in a few short weeks was cured of his homosexual tendencies?) and his family some monthly checks for the next two years while they move into a halfway house and get psychology and counseling degrees from the University of Phoenix.

Haggard indicates that he and his wife Gayle, along with their two underage younger sons, are planning to move into a one-bedroom apartment in a Phoenix halfway house to minister to the residents. They are both, he wrote, enrolled at the University of Phoenix.

In what is clearly a fundraising letter, Haggard indicated, "we need to raise our own support." However, he doesn't mention that when he left the church, New Life Church leaders agreed to pay his salary through 2007 - estimated at about $138,000 annually.

He also does not mention that he still owns a 5-bedroom, 3-bath home in Colorado Springs. Sitting on 5.1 acres, its current market value is listed at $715,051.

The organization that Haggard is asking people to send money to is Families With a Mission.

An independent confirmation with the Colorado Secretary of State's office shows that the organization's corporate offices were moved from Kailua-Kona, Hawaii to the Town of Monument, north of Colorado Springs, in July, 2003.

Its Colorado Springs mailing address is the same one to which Haggard is asking people to send donations. However, Secretary of State records show that Families With a Mission was administratively dissolved earlier this year, on Feb. 23 (something Haggard fails to mention!).

And the man who is listed as the president of Families With a Mission, Paul Gerard Huberty, appears to be the same Paul Huberty who was convicted in 1996 of having sex with a 17-year old girl while he was a Lieutenant Colonel in the Air Force stationed in Germany, and who later registered as a sex offender in Hawaii. The organization Family Watchdog, which tracks sex offenders, currently lists Huberty at the same Monument address that was the principal address of Families With a Mission.

Gee, I wonder if there is anything else he has left out!!

I think before he ask people to support his ways, he sells his house and use the money from that to get his college education. Do it like everyone else does.

But, being a "minister" they only know the art of sucking money out of everybody else!!

People like him give the ministry a bad name (along with all the pedophile priests).

This is a REAL Dad! Love him!

Not many people would risk leaving almost $21 million on the table in order to get their child a few hundred miles closer to medical care that she might not even need.

But that’s exactly what NBA star Derek Fisher did for his infant daughter, Tatum, who is battling a rare form of cancer in her left eye.

In an exclusive interview, Fisher told TODAY co-host Matt Lauer why he feels he made the only decision he could when he asked the Utah Jazz and the league to release him from his lucrative contract after his daughter was diagnosed with retinoblastoma this spring.

Fisher’s decision to walk away from his contract might be a major one for many people, but he felt it was his duty as Tatum's dad to do whatever he had to do to make sure she got the best possible medical care. He did not consider it a gamble.

”I don’t feel that basketball is the only way to make a living,” he went on. “I feel like I’m capable of doing so many things to help people around the country and around the world. I felt confident I could make the decision not knowing what was to come.”

Everything is working out, so far. Tatum’s surgery was successful and she’s completed three rounds of chemotherapy. Now, the 1-year old will be monitored by doctors in case the cancer returns.

As for Fisher, who left the Jazz on July 2, he is now the newest member of the L.A. Lakers, who will pay him $14 million for the next three years of his services.

Thank you, Derek Fisher! If only every man were this kind of a Dad, we would have fewer children growing up to be Lindsay Lohan.

Support for the Criminals - what about the victims

While the victims of priests in the LA Archdiocese will be monetarily compensated for the crimes against them, there are more priests committing these same crimes out there who go on about their way unchecked.

Although Mahony has repeatedly apologized to the victims of priestly abuse, the scandal has at least temporarily dimmed his reputation, casting a shadow over the leader of 4.3 million Catholics in the nation's most populous archdiocese.

I guess an apology makes everything okay! I am sure many people think that here is nothing else he can do. Well, guess what! There are several things he can do. For starters, stop shielding these priests. Then stop supporting them. OK, how about stop trying to buy off the victims with offers of $$$. Next step would be to acknowledge his part in the cover-up and turn himself in as aiding and abetting criminals.

The victims are not (as many people believe) in this for the money. But because of the way these priests are being shielded by the Church, the only way they know to get the Church and the lawmakers to sit up and take notice is to hit them where it hurts - in the pocketbook and the media attention this has drawn.

I have read where several parishioners are upset with the victims for not just letting the whole nasty affair go away. If that parishioner had been raped by a stranger or viciously beaten within an inch of her life, would she just let it go and not contact the police? Of course not. If her child had been raped and murdered by a pedophile (one that was not a priest), would she just let it go? No on her life!

I have yet to read in any of the articles coming out about the $600 mil settlement just how many priests are involved, much less names.

Why on earth are these criminals not being prosecuted? Sure, there are a few you see being brought to court. But there are ten-fold more that are just being shuffled under the carpet now that the settlement has been reached.

Molesting a child is a crime, I don't give a rat's behind what profession you are in. Standing behind church doors for sanctuary is wrong. And for the heads of the diocese to continue to shelter these criminals is an injustice in itself.

All the while, these heads of the churches have yet to offer any support to the victims until a settlement can be agreed upon. In fact, they see it as the settlement being the only support they will give the victims. They think a media blitz with an apology that goes out on the airwaves is supportting the victims.

I know that parishoners of the thousands of Catholic Churches across the nation truly believe that the priest they have at their parish at this very moment could not possible have done or currently involved such an abomination.

But, then, the parishioners of the churches where the criminals were at certainly did not believe that their priest would do such a thing.

I am NOT trying to plant a bug of doubt in anyone's mind about the priest at their church. But, priest are just as human as the lay person and just as open to temptation as anybody else. They are not perfect. They are not without sin.

We were raised to believe that the religious head of our local church was beyond reproach, that they lived what they taught. Truth be told, I think you will find a larger percentage of these people have committed a sin of adultry (for the non-Catholics), molestation, sexual abuse, etc. than you really want to believe.

It is far to easy for them to shield their sins behind the cloak of their profession.

I think we have a responsibility to teach our children about the unspeakable. We need to teach them to speak up when someone is doing anything even remotely wrong. I am certainly not encouraging a witch hunt. But I do think that we need to be very (VERY!) aware of what our children are doing and not hesitate one bit when we have a feeling that something is just not right.

I know, it truly is a sad truth that we can no longer raise our children to be innocents.

Today, if my Father were still alive, he would be one of the first that a parent would be very suspicious of. You see, my Dad loved little children. And I am not saying he loved them in a wrong way. He just had a way with little children. But he was partial to little girls - gee, he had 6 girls. I am not sure if he would have know what to do with a little boy!

But he was always drawn to little girls and would make a point of talking to them, strangers or not.

Today, he would not be able to do this. What a shame that we have come to this!

Holier Than Whom, Exactly?

Among the most durable myths of American public life is that conservatives are more authentic in their religious faith than liberals and progressives. Certainly this arrogant presumption prevails on the religious right, where commentators and politicians routinely denigrate the sincerity of Christians such as Hillary Rodham Clinton and Barack Obama, whose irredeemable sin is that they also happen to be Democrats and candidates for president.

Click here to read the rest of the article.

L.A. Archdiocese to settle suits for $600 million

Settlement represents Church’s largest payout in sexual abuse scandal
The Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Los Angeles will settle its clergy abuse cases for at least $600 million, by far the largest payout in the church’s sexual abuse scandal, The Associated Press learned Saturday.

I sure would like to know where the L.A. Archdiocese has all this extra money to pay for this! I am aware that they do carry insurance, but for $600 mil? That must be some hefty premium they pay to carry that amount of insurance.

If the Archdiocese has that kind of money, then the money that is tithed and given to the church is not be used for appropriate uses.

There was a letter to the Editor of my local newspaper regarding the Catholic Church (in particular Cardinal Roger Mahony of the L.A. Archdloicese) and their stand on the illegal immigration issue. Cardinal Mahoney feels that the Catholic Church should shield and protect the illegals. You have to understand, his church sits smack dab in the middle of Los Angeles, serving primarily the Hispanic population and a large portion of that population has illegal status.

The letter write made a wonderful suggestion (wish I could find the article/letter, but it was about 2 months ago). He/She suggested that since the Catholic Church wants to harbor illegals, that they should put out money for:

housing
educating the children of illegals from K-college
all medical expenses
subsidize their pay, since illegals are paid under the table at well below minimum wage
automobile registration and insurance - and pay for any cost incurred as a result of the illegals being in an accident
welfare cost for the families
any and all cost incurred that was not mentioned above

Makes sense to me

Olde Charlie Farquharson's Testament

Let me tell you about a book I bought about 3 years ago. First, let me tell you how I discovered the book.

In my research of my family tree, my Scottish line goes back to the Farquharson Clan. So, one day, I googled Farquharson. I came across this book on eBay - Olde Charlie Farquharson's Testament. From the description in the listing, I could only decipher that it was the Bible as if written phonetically by (IF you can figure out what some of the words should be!), what we here in the United States would refer to as "hillybillies", but because the author, Don Harron, is Canadian, it would be as if written by the Scottish who immigrated to Parry Sound.

I have to tell you, that while reading the King James Bible, often it is like reading Shakespeare - you are not sure exactly what a sentence means.

However, if you can make out what the words should be, then you will be in for a real treat. This is the best "Plain English" Bible I have ever seen, all the while providing a real chuckle due to the manner of vernacular.


Let me provide you with some examples from the book which I will follow up with the translated version.

The First Book of Moeziz, called Jennysez
Chapter I
1 At the start there wasn't a thing. That'd be yer Void.
2 Dark too, Absoloot kayoss. So God decided to do something about it.

Translated, reads:
The First Book of Moses, called Genesis
Chapter I
1 In the beginning God created heaven, and earth.
2 And the earth was void and empty, and darkness was upon the face of the deep; and the spirit of God moved over the waters.

The way it is worded about Adam and Eve being created and then committing the first sin is hysterical.

Here are the 10 Commandments!

1 No God but me. (FOOTNOTE: He is not jist Chareman of the Board, He is It.)
2 No cravin' imedges, or Idle Dollatry.
3 No taking My name in vane.
4 Nothin' on Sundys allowed but the Sabbith. Six days on, one day off.
5 No sassin yer pairnts.
6 No kilin.
7 No Adult follin' around.
8 No stealin.
9 No brakin' oafs or lyin' in cort.
10 Hands off yer Naber's everything.

Here are the rest of the names of the books of the Old Testament (I don't think I need to translate them for you!):

Exxodust
Levickedness
Nummers
Joshawa
Jedges
Roof
Sam Yell
Kings Won
Two Kings
Ezzrer
Neermyer
Estor
Jobe
Dan Yell

the illustration is captioned as

"Dan Yell joins the Lyin's Club"

Joaner

Then the books of

Sams, Proverbs, Cleazy Astys and Songa Salomon

are cut very short and condensed thus

These books is all fulla poetry. Even tho it don't rime it is luvly in itself and don't need enny help from enybuddy.

It goes on and list names of Biblical characters (even this was hard for me to figure out), but it ends up saying

No matter what ther name is, everyone of them profits seems to tell the people the same thing:
YER DOIN' IT ALL RONG!!!

Charlie Farquharson is a character that Don Harron (a stage actor as well as an author) portrayed often. He also wrote more Charlie Farquharson books. So the pictures/illustrations of the Charlie Farquharson in each of the books is actually Don Harron.


There are Gustave Dore illustrations (the same ones illustrated in many Bibles), but with one little twist. Somewhere in the illustrations you will find Charlie Farquharson.

I would read the book during my lunch or break at work. As I began reading the book, I realized just how much I was enjoying it. The book is small, so I could have read it in an hour. However, I really wanted to savor it. So I read it in small pieces.

The humor is not to be believed. It is not humor just for the sake of humor. It is actually the Parry Sound translated Bible. I would read a bit and just break out into a loud laugh. After a couple of days, everyone was aware of what I was reading and everytime I would laugh, they wanted me to read what it was that made me laugh.

I bought about 10 more of these books to give to friends and family. It has to be up there in my 10 ten list of books to read.

Is God trying to tell our Politicians something?

This is a fabulous shot of the Nation's Capitol!

I Thought We Were Beyond This!!

From a British Newspaper:

Pope Benedict XVI declared yesterday that Christian denominations other than his own were not true churches and their holy orders have no value.

Protestant leaders immediately responded by saying the claims were offensive and would hurt efforts to promote ecumenism.

Roman Catholic- Anglican relations are already strained over the Church of England's plans to ordain homosexuals and women as bishops. The claims came in a document, from a Vatican watchdog which was approved by the Pope.

It said the branches of Christianity formed after the split with Rome at the Reformation could not be called churches "in the proper sense" because they broke with a succession of popes who dated back to St Peter.

As a result, it went on, Protestant churches have "no sacramental priesthood", effectively reaffirming the controversial Catholic position that Anglican holy orders are worthless.

The document claimed the Catholic church was the "one true church of Christ".

Pope Benedict's commitment to the hardline teaching comes days after he reinstated the Mass in Latin, which was sidelined in the 1960s in an attempt to modernise.

The timing of the announcement fuelled speculation that the pontiff - regarded as an arch-conservative before his election in 2005 - is finally beginning to impose his views on the Catholic Church.

I do not and never have poo-pooed any other person's religion or religious beliefs and certainly am not posting this pointing fingers at any Catholic.

But I thought we had gotten past the belief that whatever your religion/church affiliation, your's was the only religion in which it's members would go to Heaven (or Eternal Life, if you would!).

These are the kind of words that just inflame religious strife. For a religious leader that espouses peace, words like this will certainly not help bring peace among the masses.